“What do you mean?” I asked. “Back home the food was always the same. The government gave us exactly the amount we needed for nourishment.”
Jacqueline looked disgusted. “That sounds terrible. Do you like Sushi?”
“I don’t know.” I raised an eyebrow. It sounded funny. “What’s that?”
“Raw fish,” Jacqueline laughed seeing my face cringe. “Okay, we’ll start you off small. How about we have seafood for dinner?”
“You mean cooked fish, right?” I hoped that’s what she meant.
She smiled, shaking her head. “You are so funny. Yes, cooked fish. They have all sorts. I’m sure we can still get a table.” Jacqueline continued walking. “To the left is the clinic.” She gestured across the street. “If you get sick or have a small injury, the doctor there will look after you. Our hospital is a few blocks away and is for the dying or health problems too large for the clinic.”
I nodded. “Do people get sick a lot?”
Jacqueline thought about the question. “What do you consider a lot? I’ve been there a few times with the flu. Not a big deal, why?”
I wanted to tell her I couldn’t remember any of my classmates ever becoming ill. Our hospitals back home were only used for conception and birth. “Just reading about history,” I explained shrugging, not sure if I could trust Jacqueline. I wanted to, but she was Rebecca’s daughter. I still had so much to get used to and so much to understand.
“Oh, you must have read by now about the Red Plague?”
I nodded faintly. “I breezed over that section, but yeah, I read a little.”
Jacqueline laughed. “So, you didn’t get into the gross and nauseating description about the boils that grow on your skin and the pus that oozes out your –”
I held up a hand feeling my stomach turn cutting her off, “Gross!”
She got the hint I’d heard enough and pointed towards the right. “That’s our tech center. I’ve never been in there. You need to have a special pass to gain access. I’ve always suspected it has to do with communications between the towns.” It was the largest building in the city and reached towards the clouds. Slowly the sun began setting in the sky and colors bounced off the tech center causing the silver and gray exterior to shimmer with pink and orange hues. I stopped walking, staring at the building, transfixed but its unexplainable beauty. “It was built right before the Red Plague,” Jacqueline told me as she grabbed my arm and pulled me with her down the road. “There are rumors that a dozen children were locked up on the top floor, never vaccinated. They were kept away from the rest of society until the disease was eradicated.”
My eyes widened as I glanced from the building to Jacqueline. “Are you sure they’re rumors?” Was that how my mother was able to conceive me? Had my grandmother been a child on that floor or her great-grandmother?
“I’ve never heard the story from an adult,” Jacqueline confessed. “Parents don’t talk about the Red Plague. It’s a childhood song. A melody that gets passed down between children. A reminder of what’s been taken from us and that we’re all vulnerable, just waiting to die.”
“A song?” I repeated. There were only a few songs I knew, the Cabal National Anthem and the Genesis Pride song.
Jacqueline hummed the verse, helping me recognize the tune. It was familiar though I’d never heard the words.
“Children run, babies cry
Little ones will never lie
Hide your children, fast and swift
For twelve already fallen in the rift.”
I paused listening to the words, thinking them over. “How does that have anything to do with the tech center?” I asked not seeing the connection.
“That was the song mothers would sing to warn one another that the government was kidnapping children. I suppose,” Jacqueline sighed, “it was the first taste of what our world has become.” I didn’t want to believe her. It sounded awful though I knew there might have been some grain of truth to the song.
“How many towns are there?” I asked as we continued walking down the long stretch of road.
Jacqueline shrugged. “A lot? I don’t know. Are you asking how many government towns or how many rebel towns?”
“Either.” I say. “I’m still wrapping my brain around the fact that I was living in a breeding camp.”
Jacqueline nodded. “It takes some getting used to. There are five breeding projects, at least that’s how many we’ve found. The government refuses to call them breeding projects, which is precisely what they are. They prefer Genesis, and then a Greek alpha denomination to decipher them. Genesis Alpha, Genesis Beta, Genesis Sigma, Genesis Delta and Genesis Zeta. Though I don’t get the point of that.” She confessed. “The government has many other projects, though, too. There’s breeding, food preparation, clothing production, shelter construction, and science advisement. They have funny names like Genesis, Provisions, Livery, Edifice, and Maven.”
It was a lot to take in. “What about the rebel towns?” I asked, curious how many of those existed.
“I don’t know the names of all the rebel cities. Most of them are named after rebels who created the towns or stood up to the government. This city is Haven named after Raven Haven. Funny name, right?” Jacqueline laughed leading us into the restaurant. “Raven Haven led the rebel alliance about twenty years ago when this town was formed. She really got her hands dirty, helped define this town and put us on the map for the alliance.”
“Is she still here?” I asked curious why – if she was so great – she didn’t belong to the council or if she had, why no one had introduced me to her.
“Sadly, no.” Jacqueline shook her head, not saying anything more. We took a seat at a small table. “It’s self-serve. We just swipe our cards when we go up for food,” she explained to me. “The cards provide us with money for food. You’ll learn you have enough if you don’t eat the most exotic meals every night.”
I nodded slowly, trying to take it all in. “How do we earn money?” It seemed like a stupid question, but clearly things were run differently here than back home.
“Well,” Jacqueline spoke up, “I’m still in school. I’m almost sixteen, so they give me an allowance for food and necessities. When you’re eighteen, you’re expected to find a job here in town.”
“You mean you can choose what you want to do?” I asked, perplexed. Back home the government assigned us our jobs. We didn’t have a choice – we were placed based on our aptitude tests.
Jacqueline tried not to laugh as she nodded vigorously. “Yes, of course. Come on – let’s eat and then I’ll show you a few more sights on our way back.”
We did eat. It was a lavish meal, one I hadn’t experienced in a lifetime. Flakes of fish melted in my mouth. Jacqueline handed me liquid gold. Repeatedly I plunged my fork in watching it drip bite after bite. She laughed at the mess I made all over the table but I didn’t care. We drank a dark purple juice that was both sweet and bitter at the same time. It burned my throat and made my cheeks flush with each sip. For dessert, chocolate was drizzled on a mouth-watering cake filled with fudge. Though it was small, I finished it in seconds, I couldn’t have eaten another bite.“So, where to now?” I asked as she led me out of the dining area.
“I thought I’d show you the library, and then we could take a look at one of the museums. They have recovered artifacts from thousands of years ago.”
“Really?” I knew what a museum was from history, but I had been told they’d all been destroyed in the Fourth World War – that nothing had been left standing. Eventually, our town Genesis was formed to keep us safe and help our nation grow. I doubted our government more and more.